Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/160

 *dent, and in a short time an astonished public beheld the spectacle of the author of the scathing "Chapter of Erie" standing sponsor for the man he had denounced. Mr. Gould managed to persuade Mr. Adams to view the future of Union Pacific through his (Gould's) eyes, and in consequence Mr. Adams unconsciously assisted Mr. Gould in disposing of large blocks of the stock to good advantage. In 1891 Mr. Gould again got control of the Union Pacific road, owing to peculiar Wall street conditions, and he calmly turned Mr. Adams out of the presidency and put Sidney Dillon back there.

"In 1876 Mr. Gould began buying Kansas Pacific stock because it was cheap. At that time stock speculators did not regard the stock as being worth anything. Mr. Gould, however, was looking away ahead, and he bought largely of Denver Pacific securities and stock and bonds of the St. Joe and Western, the Kansas Central, and Central Branch roads. All of these securities he got at a very low price, and he realized an enormous profit when they were all turned in under the famous Union Pacific consolidation scheme in 1880. For his Central Branch stock alone he received $239 per share. Mr. Gould was one of the first to suggest the consolidation of the Kansas Pacific and its subsidiary roads with the Union Pacific. He employed Solon Humphreys and Gen. Dodge to go West, look over the situation, and make a report on the practicability of the consolidation.

In 1879 a consolidated mortgage was issued by the Kansas Pacific to wipe out the innumerable se